Home Cinema Upgrade Advice

IanB87

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Hi I am looking for some advice on upgrading my home cinema set up which is now 10 years old. I am moving house and so have decided that it’s worthwhile biting the bullet and upgrading the system.

I currently have the following for home cinema:

5.1 setup
Marantz NR1602 AVR
Monitor Audio Radius 90 HD speakers for left, right and surrounds
Monitor Audio Radius 225 HD centre speaker
Monitor Audio 360 HD subwoofer

I have a separate Roksan Kandy K2 amplifier connected to Kef R300 speakers for hifi. I kept the 2 systems separate due to original room layout but I am now wanting to combine both systems by means of HT bypass so that I use the Kef R300 speakers as my front left and right for the home cinema. Therefore, I am looking to upgrade the rest of the system and am considering the following for AVR and centre / Atmos speaker:

Denon X3700H AVR
Kef R2c centre speaker
Kef R8a Atmos speaker

I am wondering if the Kef R2c will blend OK with the R300’s as I guess it is designed to pair with the new R3 model?

Secondly, I am unsure where to go with surround speakers. One option is to buy the Kef R3 and use that as fronts and move my existing R300’s to the surrounds but that seems fairly expensive and is probably overkill. Monitor Audio looks to have some options in their silver series but I’m a bit confused as to what would work best. Does it matter if the Atmos and surrounds are different brands or should they be kept the same?

Thirdly, subwoofer wise I am open to suggestions. I’ve seen good reviews for the SVS PB1000 pro which seems to stand out to me at the moment.

I plan to do the upgrade in a few stages as I’ll need to spend cash on other house related stuff. So my thinking was to start with the AVR and centre speaker, then the Atmos and surrounds with the subwoofer last.

Any advice or suggestions would be welcome.
 
Sounds like you have a good plan. I would go with the R2C. The current R range was more evolution than revolution and I doubt very much they would be too much of a timbre imbalance. You'll lose nothing of your music performance because of still using the Roksan in HT by-pass.

As for R8a then you'll have two options for placement with either upfiring or high wall mounted. I've had R50s sitting on top of my R300s since they first went on sale, very pleased with the performance.
 
Hi I am looking for some advice on upgrading my home cinema set up which is now 10 years old. I am moving house and so have decided that it’s worthwhile biting the bullet and upgrading the system.

I currently have the following for home cinema:

5.1 setup
Marantz NR1602 AVR
Monitor Audio Radius 90 HD speakers for left, right and surrounds
Monitor Audio Radius 225 HD centre speaker
Monitor Audio 360 HD subwoofer

I have a separate Roksan Kandy K2 amplifier connected to Kef R300 speakers for hifi. I kept the 2 systems separate due to original room layout but I am now wanting to combine both systems by means of HT bypass so that I use the Kef R300 speakers as my front left and right for the home cinema. Therefore, I am looking to upgrade the rest of the system and am considering the following for AVR and centre / Atmos speaker:

Denon X3700H AVR
Kef R2c centre speaker
Kef R8a Atmos speaker

I am wondering if the Kef R2c will blend OK with the R300’s as I guess it is designed to pair with the new R3 model?

Secondly, I am unsure where to go with surround speakers. One option is to buy the Kef R3 and use that as fronts and move my existing R300’s to the surrounds but that seems fairly expensive and is probably overkill. Monitor Audio looks to have some options in their silver series but I’m a bit confused as to what would work best. Does it matter if the Atmos and surrounds are different brands or should they be kept the same?

Thirdly, subwoofer wise I am open to suggestions. I’ve seen good reviews for the SVS PB1000 pro which seems to stand out to me at the moment.

I plan to do the upgrade in a few stages as I’ll need to spend cash on other house related stuff. So my thinking was to start with the AVR and centre speaker, then the Atmos and surrounds with the subwoofer last.

Any advice or suggestions would be welcome.

Denon could be introducing new X3800H later of 2022. Something new is coming but we don´t know what and when. Also price reductions for current 3700 if new model swapping it so you might want to wait. But then if it won´t happen this year you will be cursing.. 😄 However X3700H came 6/2020 so i would be suprised if they won´t announce new model soon, but there is still shipping issues and some poor part availability.

One ex-demo R2c with 200£ savings here:

You could also buy "fully matching" R600c from this guy used in gloss black. It has the identical drivers to your R300 speakers. It´s overpriced but you can make offer.

Again as you have the old R300 then don´t bother paying dirty high price 800£ for upfiring speakers. You can get the R50a which Gibbsy has for 300-350£ used and they won´t be far off from the new version. They often sold here for that so can put wanted add too. Ebay has one black pair going so you can try your luck.

There is actually better deals available for subwoofer depending are you size restricted? How large room you have and are you planning to add 2nd sub later?
 
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You could also buy "fully matching" R600c from this guy used in gloss black. It has the identical drivers to your R300 speakers. It´s overpriced but you can make offer.
That's a big old beast of a speaker. FWIW I'm running the R200C with the R300s but they are quite hard to find. Interestingly KEF dropped the like for like replacement with the R2C being the only centre in the range.
 
Thanks for the replies. Good news that R2c should be OK.

The room is kind of size restricted, it’s 7.06m x 3.73m with the system going on to one of the longer length walls as there are windows / patio doors at each end. It’s a living room so will probably look to stick to one sub to minimise clutter and keep the wife happy!

I never thought on checking out used equipment, I’ll look into that as it’ll help keep the costs sensible.

I think in terms of surrounds due to the layout I am going to need something which goes on a stand at either side of the main seating area as wall mounting side on won’t really work. Due to that I am starting to wonder if something like the Kef Q150 or Q350 would be an option for surrounds. That way I keep all the speakers Kef, whether that’s a big deal for surrounds or not I don’t know.
 
Can you post a diagram of the room with the screen and potential speaker positions along with seating. Firing across the narrow part of the room now makes a difference.
 
I have attached a rough layout, part of the problem is we don’t move in for another couple of weeks so I don’t have more in depth measurements. We’re looking to replace the existing fireplace and hang the TV above a new one, preferably as low as possible!

There is a second couch which will go perpendicular to the main couch, my wife reckons in line with the front window. We’re trying to keep the room as clutter free as possible to maximise space for our 2 year old.

I’ve been reading up on bipoles and dipoles surround speakers, getting my head around what may be suitable. It may be possible to have something on the wall behind the main couch. The fact the room is quite narrow in width may make things a little tricky I guess.
 

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